News Release Number: STScI-2011-03

The Two-faced Whirlpool Galaxy

January 13, 2011: These images by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show off two
dramatically different face-on views of the spiral galaxy M51,
dubbed the Whirlpool Galaxy.

The image at left, taken in visible light, highlights the
attributes of a typical spiral galaxy, including graceful, curving
arms, pink star-forming regions, and brilliant blue strands of
star clusters. In the image at right, most of the starlight has
been removed, revealing the Whirlpool's skeletal dust structure,
as seen in near-infrared light. This new image is the sharpest view
of the dense dust in M51. The narrow lanes of dust revealed by
Hubble reflect the galaxy's moniker, the Whirlpool Galaxy, as
if they were swirling toward the galaxy's core. These images will
be presented on Jan. 13, 2011, at the American Astronomical Society
meeting in Seattle, Wash.